Question "enable" not working on Dell Powerconnect 5324 switch

[Red Squirrel]

I'm trying to configure vlans on this switch but for some reason when I login as admin I don't have full privileges. When I type "enable" it just says "authentication failure".

Unfortunately I can't seem to find a machine here that has a serial port so I can't connect to the console and don't have a USB to serial cable. I ordered one on Amazon but by sniffing the traffic I was able to find the IP of the switch so trying to get in that way. Anyone know a way I can get enable to work?

 

[adamge]

Have you tried factory resetting the switch, to put its config back to factory default and make the initial configuration wizard available?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Need serial access for that unfortunately. Was hoping there was some other way, but maybe I will just have to wait for my order to come in. I thought I had a USB to serial converter but looked all over for it.

 

[ch33zw1z]

If this switch is in use, use the show start and show run commands to save output configs to text file.

I’m not sure of the exact dell comands, but operationally they were similar to Cisco iirc

 

[Red Squirrel]

Even show run wouldn't work couldn't do anything. The switch is just a spare I had lying around. I need it to test/configure vlan rules on my new firewall before I deploy it.

Managed to find the proper serial cable by digging deeper into my boxes of cables and also forgot I had one of my old work laptops here that has a serial port. Managed to get in and wiped the config and rebuilt it and now I can ssh in. The old config must have been messed up. The admin account had minimum access.